I made my own version of ramen once, and of course since my husband grew up in the Land of Ramen, I expected he wouldn't like my ramen. I don't remember why he suddenly wanted to taste my ramen that night, but when he tasted it, he said it was really delicious. He asked if I cooked a lot because, although he had just eaten a full dinner, he wanted to eat my ramen too. However, he didn't order a serving, so I cooked for only one. But seeing him very excited to eat MY cooking (yes, it's one of the greatest feeling when his eyes spark, asking for more of my cooking), I said the usual lie-- "I'm quite full/I didn't really want to eat" (plus some more reasoning so that he'll believe that I'm totally fine if he eats it). So he ended up eating mine and I had bread for dinner instead. hahahaha

My stomach felt more full while watching him enjoy my cooking than when I eat my own cooking, so, I didn't actually lie, did I? ^_^

On a pan, dry fry usuage until crunchy, then remove from heat and set aside.

On the same pan, lightly fry soy ham until medium brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

Still on the same pan, stir-fry green beans, sprinkle with black pepper and mushroom powder. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Around this time, the water on your pot has boiled. Cook egg noodles according to package instructions. Add black pepper, VCP and a bit of vegetarian barbecue sauce. Since you also flavored your vegetables, be careful not to make your soup stock flavor too strong.

While your noodles are cooking, go back to your pan and stir-fry spinach, sprinkled with salt and mushroom powder. Remove from pan and set aside.

It's then time to cook the cabbage (but in the photo above, I used Chinese cabbage because that's what I had available). Just stir-fry and flavor it however you want.

On a soup bowl, pour the egg noodles and soup and top it with the usuage, soy ham, nori and vegetables you prepared and set aside.

Tips and tricks You can play with more vegetables! This was just an on-the-spot-craving, whatever-ingredients-are-available ramen. I won't suggest particular veggies this time, so just be free and creative!

But I'll share a learning from a couple of experiences with Chinese cabbage... If you will not finish your soup immediately, specially if you're planning to be lazy and cook a cauldron of soup for the whole day, better not opt for this one. It tends to be soggy and really unpleasant, I don't even want to remember how it was when it happened the last two times.

Egg noodles are normally used for ramen. But ever since I was born, I have never benn a fan of egg. So I've tried using different kinds of noodles-- eggless noodles, vermicelli noodles, spaghetti. For me, they all tasted much better than egg noodles! Try it for yourselves!